"Application Moved" error when running Photoshop Elements 13

[Lauchlan157F]

Hi

I'm running Photoshop Elements 13 on a Mac High Sierra (10.13.6). The Mac Pro (mid 2010) can't be upgraded past High Sierra, but it does have 32GB of RAM and good, fast quad core processors. 

The "Organizer" does not run. It has various missing components. 

The Photo Editor does run though. Before working properly, it gives me this error:

If I click "Update" and update it, it doesn't fix anything and I still get this same error next time. 

If I click "Do not update" it moves on and runs the app. 

So either way, it does not fix the path error, and I see this error every time I run it. 

Some things I've tried: 

1. Uninstalling all Adobe apps and running the cleaner, and then doing a fresh install. Outcome: it still works exactly the same way with the same error. 

The installation file was downloaded directly from the relevant links given to me by Adobe support (also, I downloaded from the official site for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 versions - below). 

2. Installing trial versions of Photoshop Elements 2020 (the latest version that is meant to run on High Sierra) and 2019 and 2018, to see if one of those works properly. Outcome: 2020 installs ok, but then does not run (I get an "Application is not responding" in the Activity Monitor when the installer launches the program or I run the program directly). Same if I try to run the photo editor or organiser app directly. I get the same thing with Elements 2019 and 2018 as well. I tried installing Elements 2020 from a different user account (an Admin one) and it works the same way. 

3. Cleaning out things from old user and system library folders on old disks (I used to boot from another drive). I renamed the Adobe folders under Application Support on the OLD drive, to make sure it wasn't using those folders by mistake. No impact. 

Sp, my question is: what can you suggest to help me get rid of this "Application Moved" error, and to get Photoshop Elements 13 running properly on my Mac?

Thanks!

[Jeff Arola]

Do you have a backup drive attached that is used for Time Machine?

[Lauchlan157F]

Kind of.

In March, my Mac crashed and I had to replace the boot SSD. I did a recovery of things like the Application folder from the Time Machine backup disk.

But the disk itself wasn't recognised by Time Machine, and Time Machine wasn't running for 47 days until I fixed it earlier today. I'm not sure if the computer was even recognising the backup disk - it wasn't today when I erased it and reformatted it. I had to unplug it and plug it in again to get the computer to "see" it. 

After the Time Machine backup finishes (this might take a day or two), since it's backing up a lot). I can unplug the backup disk and try reinstalling Elements 13, if you think that might help. 

[Jeff Arola]

Yes, definitely don't have a backup hooked up while trying to get pse 13 running.

Also having your applications like pse 13 running on your boot drive is best.

In fact it's a good idea not to have anyb other drives seen by your boot drive that's running pse 13 while trying to get it running.

[Lauchlan157F]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. It was definitely worth trying. 

I unplugged the backup drive, ran the uninstallers (at least as far as they would go) and deleted all the files for the different versions of Elements (13, 2018, 2019, and 2020). Then ran the cleaner and cleaned out everything it found. Then I emptied the trash can, and I ran the installer for 13. 

However, it made zero difference. 

I still get the same "Application Moved" error message. 

Organizer is still just as broken as it was before (a whole bunch of components did not install correctly, e.g. the first error message of sevceral is in the screenshot below)

In short, this was a great suggestion, but it doesn't seem to have solved the problem yet.

Any other ideas? 

Thanks in advance. 

[Jeff Arola]

When you installed pse 13 did you follow a procedure similar to the one here under Creative Suite 6?

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/install-creative-suite-mac-os-sierra.html

[Lauchlan157F]

Putting aside that it was Elements and not Creative Suite (as I expect you're already very aware), no I didn't open the file that way. 

I downloaded the DMG file, and double-clicked on it to open something like this:

I then double-clicked on the "Adobe Photoshop Elements 13" to get:

I then double-clicked the installer file from there to open it. Then I ran the installer, which appeared to install successfully (no error messages). 

I assume this is functionally the same thing as the more roundabout and non-intuitive way of "show package contents" and I would have thought it wouldn't make any difference. But if you think it does, I'm happy to try pretty much anything that sounds plausibly beneficial at this point. 

[Lauchlan157F]

ok to check if this changes anything, I tried the "show package contents" way and opened the installer from a the Mac OS folder after uninstalling / clearing everything I could first. 

I get exactly the same behaviour / problems as before - it doesn't make any difference. 

[Jeff Arola]

Is your drive a standard spinning drive or an ssd?

It might be worth using First Aid in Disk Utility to check your drive for errors and repair if possible.

https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/repair-a-storage-device-dskutl1040/mac

[Lauchlan157F]

It's installing the software into an Applicaitons folder on a NEW SSD I just bought a couple of months ago. I really doubt that that's the problem. 

The user folders including the system and user libraries are, for space reasons on a different disk. I tried the First Aid on that disk but it refused to unmount, which I assumed to mean I had to "restart your computer in macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility in the macOS Recovery window," which seems like too much trouble when I don;t think it's the problem. 

I have no issues with any other applications other than Adobe ones. Everything except Adobe installs fine. And I don't have any issues running anything else, or with corrupted files. 

Is there another (free, reputable) disk diagnostic tool I can use that doesn't need to be run in recovery mode?

[Jeff Arola]

Your probably right about nothing being wrong with your ssd itself.

The thing with adobe applications, unlike most mac applications that are confined to just the applications folder, is adobe installs stuff all over the drive especially into the system folder. So having the system folder on a different drive might be the cause of your issue.

[Lauchlan157F]

I get that Adobe is different to "most other" applications, but so is MS Office, for example, which works fine with the user directory on another drive. 

I don't see any logical reason why having the  user library folders on a different drive would stop applicaitons working, and if they stop Adobe products working I'd expect to see issues with other applications as well. 

So I guess in principle it COULD be some conflict with Adobe working with the user directory on a second drive. It just doesn't seem likely.

In any case I can't move the user folder to the current SSD due to space reasons (it's only a 500GB SSD drive and there isn't enough spare space) so the point is moot for me unless I upgrade the SSD. 

[Jeff Arola]

The User folders probably won't make any difference, however you used the word System.

What exact System folder did you move?

Do you have a spare drive you could install macOS High Sierra on and then just photoshop elements 13 to see how that works?

[Lauchlan157F]

I have two main drives, one I'll call SSD (the main boot drive) and one I'll call OtherDrive. 

On SSD the library and system folders (currently in use) are:

SSD/Library/Application Support/Adobe/

SSD/System/Library/

The Adobe application files are installed at

SSD/Applications/

I also have

OtherDrive/Users/MyName/Library/

But ALSO on OtherDrive, because it used to at a point years in the past be my startup drive, I have

OtherDrive/Applications/

OtherDrive/System/Library/

OtherDrive/Library/Application Support/Adobe_Old/ (I renamed the Adobe folder so hopefully it would not use this data. It does not appear that the files in this folder have been edited / changed since 2014)

By and large, apart from me renaming folders or deleting stuff on OtherDrive to try and resolve the Adobe installation issues, these files in OtherDrive/Library, OtherDrive/System/ and OtherDrive/Applications/ haven't changed since 2014 or 2015. 

If there's anything Adobe might use in any of the other OtherDrive folders, I'm happy to rename that folder (or move or delete it) if you think it might help. 

Also, at one point during htis process I deleted everything Adobe related from the Apple keychain. 

[Jeff Arola]

All the problems with photoshop elements are likely due to something with the data on the Other/Drive.

On your OtherDrive you say you have System/Library/ and an old System/Library/ plus a System/Library/

on the SSD. I can't help but think that's what's causing photoshop elements to have all those issues.

[Lauchlan157F]

That's what I thought as well, for a while. 

But the only place that Adobe puts fles seems to be in the 

<DRIVE>/Library/Application Support/Adobe 

folder. 

I have two of those:

SSS/Library/Application Support/Adobe and 

OtherDrive/Library/Application Support/Adobe - renamed to 

OtherDrive/Library/Application Support/Adobe_Old

When I suggested deleting the second one, the Adobe support specialist said to me that renaming it was enough to prevent it being used by Adobe applications. 

I'm quite happy to rename or delete any other folders on OtherDrive that Adobe uses, but am not aware of any additional folders I should be paying attention to in this regard. Any ideas? 

[Test Screen Name]

There can be only one /Applications folder and only one /Users folder. But which one is it? You keep quoting only the disk name + folder name. In recent years Apple stopped adding the volume name to the real one.  Make sure you are installing in the real, one and only /Applications folder. I can well believe you will get problems if that's on a different disk to /System or  /Library (but /Users should be OK). 

[Lauchlan157F]

Yes, I am installing in the right Applicaitons folder. That stuff is pretty easy to check, you just need to look in the folder. 

Similarly with the /Library and /Users folders. 

I am not aware that Adobe puts anythin  in the /System folder. If so, which subfolders does Adobe put  anything in?

[Lauchlan157F]

Also, FWIW, on the advice of Adobe support when trying to install Elements 2020, I created a new admin user account on my Mac and tried installing 2020 from there. It didn't work (I had the same problems as in the original account).